1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a connector for a card such as an IC card.
2. Description of Related Art
In FIG. 11A, there is shown a connector 80 as a card connector of this type. In the connector 80, an insertion cavity 85 for receiving a card 84 inserted therein is defined, as shown in FIG. 11A, by fixing a synthetic resin frame 82 of a generally open-square shape as seen in plan onto a substrate 81 and covering the frame 82 with a channel-shaped metal frame 83 as shown in FIG. 11B.
In general, an inverted insertion preventing structure for preventing the card 84 from being inserted upside down into the insertion cavity 85 is provided on a side wall 86 of the synthetic resin frame 82.
Lateral sides of the insertion cavity 85 of the connector of FIG. 11A are respectively defined by lateral side walls 86 of the synthetic resin frame 82. This poses a problem that the card connector 80 has a laterally expanded footprint on the substrate 81.
A conceivable approach to reduction of the footprint is to significantly reduce the lengths of the side walls 86 of the synthetic resin frame 82, reduce the thicknesses of the side walls 86 and define the lateral sides of the insertion cavity 85 by lateral side walls 87 of a cover 83.
In this case, however, the lateral side walls 86 of the synthetic resin frame 82 are disposed in an inner portion of the insertion cavity 85, so that the inverted card insertion preventing structure is disposed in the inner portion of the insertion cavity 85. As a result, a user does not realize the inverted insertion until the card 84 is inserted deeply into the inner portion of the insertion cavity 85.
Hence, there is a possibility that the user forcibly squeezes the card 84 into the innermost position of the insertion cavity 85 to damage the card 84 and the like.